How old are you?

[CamG]

Greetings to all of us who have come to terms with our mortality!
You have got to dive more than on vacation but eventually you will have to dive solo or go home without diving at all!
That is not my opinion but my experience!
SXXT happens buddies bail, autos breakdown, gear malfunctions, etc. sometimes you have to just do it.

Guess what?
After you do a few ON YOUR OWN "Solo" dives you begin to think about it more and if you are confronted with no buddy or no buddy that wants to do the dive you want to it becomes an option.
I am not advocating unsafe solo diving but have worked myself up into self rescue mentality and no I do not claim to know it all or be a member of any particular dive group or agency.
I am just a diver who would rather solo than loose a dive!

That being said I plan dives carefully gas, conditions, specific goals, most of all how I feel!
I have bagged dives because I was feeling badly or just off so to speak.
When planning dives I consider the risk factor huge, if an overhead I am very attuned to these details.
When I am in OW I still plan the aspects of the dive but am not as anal about a few criteria.

I still prefer to dive with buddies most of the time but rarely count on them to be only the last resort in an emergency.
I have grown into this mentality and my buddies of like mindedness, we watch each other very carefully and know when to ask the right questions.

Some have given me the look as others have described like the reaper is behind me.
What they do not realize he is standing behind us all just waiting for his turn!
A good buddy is GOLD, a bad buddy is a ticket to the morgue!
I have never met a diver who planned on being a fatality but for some it worked out that way.
We call are own dives using conservative criteria to reduce the risk and train for failures, while building exit strategies into our dives.
If I fail to get control of a dive accident then it may become my last dive!
If I have a health issue while soloing it may be my last dive!
If I walk out of my house and a tree falls on me it may be my last dive!
WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE!
NOT A MATTER OF IF?
BUT WHEN AND HOW!
It is up to you to call your own destiny!

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[Akimbo]

I started Scuba at 11 and was about 15 on my first totally solo. I think it was a black water dive in a pond to recover a lost valve for my Dad. There were plenty of virtually solo/“leave and return to boat about the same time” dives starting about 13. I am 60 now.

At least in my small circle, buddy diving was never that big a deal. My instructor was a mechanical engineer and taught because he enjoyed it and a little extra cash to subsidize the diving habit. The only thing really hammered into us is you will die if you hold your breath on ascent. Somewhere along the line that started scaring customers and it became “never hold your breath”. It was clear what value a buddy might have and what to do when they weren’t around. It was never a mandate or a crutch.

 

[tropitan]

I started SCUBA relatively late in life, at 49. Did my first solo shortly thereafter and now, at 51, find I enjoy solo diving just as much as buddy diving, for different reasons. Of course, having the RIGHT buddy can make all the diff. But, there is NOTHING quite as thrilling as a good solo dive.
It's interesting to note that over 15% of solo divers are over 60; there is life after old age after all!!! Be safe...

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

It's interesting to note that over 15% of responders to this poll claim they are over 60.

I am over 50 and I solo a lot, but I have not even participated in the one or two polls I started! :shocked2:

Also, there is solo cleaning boat hulls and there is solo cave, but in this poll both are just solo.

A couple weeks ago two big things happened in my life; I moved to a new residence across the street from a dive site I have very limited experience with, and I bought a couple Apollo AV-1 dive scooters.

Yesterday I finally felt like checkin' out one of the new scooters and my new home dive site. This has been on my mind ever since the Safety Equipment threads started in the main forums. My Viper battery died a few dives ago and I have not made it into Long's Drug yet, the scooter batteries were charged over 2 weeks ago, my power inflator has a slow auto inflate and I carry no cutting device, no SMB, no mirror and no pony.

I do stay on top of weather and swell forecasts, so when the new South swell was late/weak and the afternoon wind was nonexistent (as predicted), I launched at ~5 PM for my first exploration. Between 15 to 20 minutes in a mostly South heading the reef finally dropped to it's base, more than 100 feet deep. My original plan was to not go below 60, due to no computer and untested (by me) scooter. Man, it was beautiful out there; I continued South for a few more minutes, dropping to 110' to estimate the bottom at more than 130', making my "turn" at approximately 20 minutes (based on air consumption?).

Heading back to the coral, a really big Great Barracuda led me back out for a minute or so at 100', but I could not get close enough for a pic, so I again turned North. I had drifted East of my original course and now cruised at 60' along a deep canyon wall, right over a huge Java Moray poking his head out of the coral; should have taken a fly by pic, but I landed in nearby sand and only saw him retreat into the reef.

The last half hour or so was more according to plan, cruising the less than 40' deep reef ridges hoping to see Manta Rays. Well, kind of hoping, since minutes before launch I found that my Canon S95 was not shooting RAW in Auto. Ended up taking a picture of a pretty nervous turtle, just as some documentation, and wandering my way to within 50 yards of my truck. Really nice that my dad raised me with internal GPS.

Now I have guided a couple afternoon boat Manta drift dives out there, and I did kind of "naturally" cruise past the only mooring I know of out there, but that is the kind of solo for which no poll option should ever exist.

 

[redacted]

I'm 65 now and did not get certified until 1994. But I think I was 16 when I did my first dive and that dive was solo. Who had 2 sets of gear in the early 60's?

BTW, who is Dusty? I'm beginning to doubt if I have 5 more years of diving left in me - even if medicare covers the vitamin M.

 

[shoredivr]

Most older divers are out-of-shape, don't dive on a regular basis, are too cheap to keep their gear updated and upgraded, cut corners, and BS more than they dive.

I don't fit that profile and I checked 51-60

 

[SeaHorse81]

I don't fit that profile and I checked 51-60

Same here. I notice the offenses listed by w ripley amongst divers in every age group, with no age group overly represented.

 

[captain]

I am 67 and my cardiologist said I am in the top 2% of the population for physical fitness.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

it's not just an age thing, i am just so fed up with people who have not been diving 5 minutes trying to tell me how to do it. the classic one was i taught someone how to run dives & as soon as he got his book signed he started telling me i had it all wrong.

I've had a couple former students get the bug in a big way, take every class they could find, and then tell me I'm not up to their "standards" because I chose the wrong agency ... or don't concentrate on only doing tech dives. Ironically, in both cases they burned out after a few years and got out of diving altogether ... now they're off being "the best" at some other recreational activity ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

BTW, who is Dusty? I'm beginning to doubt if I have 5 more years of diving left in me - even if medicare covers the vitamin M.

Sure ya do. Dusty's a friend of mine who posts on another board. Here's his profile info ... Northwest Dive Club • Login ... he's 68 (didn't realize he was that old ... he doesn't look it) ... and still occasionally dives with his dad.

I have another friend who's 82 and still dives. Granted, he doesn't do cold-water dives anymore, but does enjoy diving in Maui from time to time. He did give up windsurfing with his grandkids a couple years ago ... says it's just too much effort ... but he still cuts a mean track on skis ...

... Bob (Grateful DIver)